Characterization of Trace Oxygenates from Co-processing of Bio-oils with Petroleum-Derived Feed with GC × GC–MS

Co-processing of bio-oil and petroleum-derived feed in a fluid catalytic cracking process of a refinery is considered to be one of the most potential bio-liquid fuel preparation technologies. The detailed qualitative and quantitative analysis of the oxygenates in the co-cracking products facilitates optimization of the subsequent processing. In this study, an in-depth characterization of trace oxygenates from home-made co-processing liquid products in a fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) pilot plant unit at different bio-oil water-soluble phase (BOWS)/vacuum gas oil (VGO) mass blending ratios (0/100, 10/90, 20/80) at different reaction temperature (500 and 525 °C) was performed with quantitative and qualitative comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC × GC–MS). An internal standard method with the internal standard 1,1,3,3-tetramethoxypropane was used to quantify trace oxygenates, which was selected from the qualitative analysis of the co-processing liquid products. The results showed that the contents of phenols and benzofurans in the liquid products from co-processing were low and the addition of BOWS was beneficial to improve the co-processing conversion, reduce the coke yield, but reduce the gas products and gasoline yield. The deoxygenation of catalytic cracking for oxygenates also weakened with the increase of bio-oil addition. The increase of reaction temperature can strengthen the deoxygenation of catalytic cracking, but the excessively high temperature can strengthen the thermal cracking reaction and reduce the gasoline yield.